The Regional Effects of a Place-based Policy – Causal Evidence from Germany
Matthias Brachert, Eva Dettmann, Mirko Titze
Regional Science and Urban Economics,
November
2019
Abstract
The German government provides discretionary investment grants to structurally weak regions in order to reduce regional inequality. We use a regression discontinuity design that exploits an exogenous discrete jump in the probability of regional actors to receive investment grants to identify the causal effects of the policy. We find positive effects of the programme on district-level gross value-added and productivity growth, but no effects on employment and gross wage growth.
Artikel Lesen
National Culture and Risk-taking: Evidence from the Insurance Industry
Chrysovalantis Gaganis, Iftekhar Hasan, Panagiota Papadimitri, Menelaos Tasiou
Journal of Business Research,
April
2019
Abstract
The gravity of insurance within the financial sector is constantly increasing. Reasonably, after the events of the recent financial turmoil, the domain of research that examines the factors driving the risk-taking of this industry has been signified. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the interplay between national culture and risk of insurance firms. We quantify the cultural overtones, measuring national culture considering the dimensions outlined by the Hofstede model and risk-taking using the ‘Z-score’. In a sample consisting of 801 life and non-life insurance firms operating across 42 countries over the period 2007–2016, we find a strong and significant relationship among insurance firms' risk-taking and cultural characteristics, such as individualism, uncertainty avoidance and power distance. Results remain robust to a variety of firm and country-specific controls, alternative measures of risk, sample specifications and tests designed to alleviate endogeneity.
Artikel Lesen
flexpaneldid: A Stata Command for Causal Analysis with Varying Treatment Time and Duration
Eva Dettmann, Alexander Giebler, Antje Weyh
Abstract
>>A completely revised version of this paper has been published as: Dettmann, Eva; Giebler, Alexander; Weyh, Antje: flexpaneldid. A Stata Toolbox for Causal Analysis with Varying Treatment Time and Duration. IWH Discussion Paper 3/2020. Halle (Saale) 2020.<<
The paper presents a modification of the matching and difference-in-differences approach of Heckman et al. (1998) and its Stata implementation, the command flexpaneldid. The approach is particularly useful for causal analysis of treatments with varying start dates and varying treatment durations (like investment grants or other subsidy schemes). Introducing more flexibility enables the user to consider individual treatment and outcome periods for the treated observations. The flexpaneldid command for panel data implements the developed flexible difference-in-differences approach and commonly used alternatives like CEM Matching and difference-in-differences models. The novelty of this tool is an extensive data preprocessing to include time information into the matching approach and the treatment effect estimation. The core of the paper gives two comprehensive examples to explain the use of flexpaneldid and its options on the basis of a publicly accessible data set.
Artikel Lesen
Public Investment Subsidies and Firm Performance – Evidence from Germany
Matthias Brachert, Eva Dettmann, Mirko Titze
Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik,
Nr. 2,
2018
Abstract
This paper assesses firm-level effects of the single largest investment subsidy programme in Germany. The analysis considers grants allocated to firms in East German regions over the period 2007 to 2013 under the regional policy scheme Joint Task ‘Improving Regional Economic Structures’ (GRW). We apply a coarsened exact matching (CEM) in combination with a fixed effects difference-in-differences (FEDiD) estimator to identify the effects of programme participation on the treated firms. For the assessment, we use administrative data from the Federal Statistical Office and the Offices of the Länder to demonstrate that this administrative database offers a huge potential for evidence-based policy advice. The results suggest that investment subsidies have a positive impact on different dimensions of firm development, but do not affect overall firm competitiveness. We find positive short- and medium-run effects on firm employment. The effects on firm turnover remain significant and positive only in the medium-run. Gross fixed capital formation responses positively to GRW funding only during the mean implementation period of the projects but becomes insignificant afterwards. Finally, the effect of GRW-funding on labour productivity remains insignificant throughout the whole period of analysis.
Artikel Lesen
Who Benefits from GRW? Heterogeneous Employment Effects of Investment Subsidies in Saxony Anhalt
Eva Dettmann, Mirko Titze, Antje Weyh
IWH Discussion Papers,
Nr. 27,
2017
Abstract
The paper estimates the plant level employment effects of investment subsidies in one of the most strongly subsidized German Federal States. We analyze the treated plants as a whole, as well as the influence of heterogeneity in plant characteristics and the economic environment. Modifying the standard matching and difference-in-difference approach, we develop a new procedure that is particularly useful for the evaluation of funding programs with individual treatment phases within the funding period. Our data base combines treatment, employment and regional information from different sources. So, we can relate the absolute effects to the amount of the subsidy paid. The results suggest that investment subsidies have a positive influence on the employment development in absolute and standardized figures – with considerable effect heterogeneity.
Artikel Lesen
TV and Entrepreneurship
Viktor Slavtchev, Michael Wyrwich
IWH Discussion Papers,
Nr. 17,
2017
Abstract
We empirically analyse whether television (TV) can influence entrepreneurial identity and incidence. To identify causal effects, we utilise a quasi-natural experiment setting. During the division of Germany after WWII into West Germany with a free-market economy and the socialistic East Germany with centrally-planned economy, some East German regions had access to West German public TV that – differently from the East German TV – transmitted images, values, attitudes and view of life compatible with the free-market economy principles and supportive of entrepreneurship. We show that during the 40 years of socialistic regime in East Germany entrepreneurship was highly regulated and virtually impossible and that the prevalent formal and informal institutions broke the traditional ties linking entrepreneurship to the characteristics of individuals so that there were hardly any differences in the levels and development of entrepreneurship between East German regions with and without West German TV signal. Using both, regional and individual level data, we show then that, for the period after the Unification in 1990 which made starting an own business in East Germany, possible again, entrepreneurship incidence is higher among the residents of East German regions that had access to West German public TV, indicating that TV can, while transmitting specific images, values, attitudes and view of life, directly impact on the entrepreneurial mindset of individuals. Moreover, we find that young individuals born after 1980 in East German households that had access to West German TV are also more entrepreneurial. These findings point to second-order effects due to inter-personal and inter-generational transmission, a mechanism that can cause persistent differences in the entrepreneurship incidence across (geographically defined) population groups.
Artikel Lesen
Wissenstransfer in der Region Jena: Die Bedeutung von Innovationskooperationen
S. Pfeil, Michael Schwartz, K. Kaps, M.-W. Stoetzer
Beitrag in IWH-Sammelwerk,
aus: Vernetzung, Kooperationen, Metropolregionen – Effekte für die wirtschaftliche Zukunft der Städte. Dokumentationen des „3rd Halle Forum on Urban Economic Growth“
2012
Abstract
Beitrag aus: Vernetzung, Kooperationen, Metropolregionen – Effekte für die wirtschaftliche Zukunft der Städte. Dokumentationen des „3rd Halle Forum on Urban Economic Growth“.
Jena als Mitgliedsstadt des Kooperationsverbundes „Metropolregion Mitteldeutschland“ vereint eine stark ausgeprägte und vernetzte Wissenschafts- und Wirtschaftslandschaft, die bereits Gegenstand vielfältiger Analysen war. Neben der 450-jährigen Friedrich-Schiller-Universität und der Fachhochschule Jena, die dieses Jahr ihr 20-jähriges Jubiläum feiert, sind international renommierte Forschungseinrichtungen u. a. der Max-Planck- und Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft sowie der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft ansässig. Zudem finden sich eine Vielzahl junger innovationsorientierter Unternehmen, z. B. in der optischen Industrie, der Mikrosystemtechnik und der Biotechnologie auf der einen Seite sowie die Traditionsunternehmen Jenoptik, Zeiss und Schott auf der anderen Seite. Die Zusammenarbeit von Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft ist in Jena historisch verwurzelt – so arbeiteten bereits der Chemiker und Glastechniker Otto Schott, der Physiker und Professor Ernst Abbe und Universitätsmechaniker Carl Zeiss in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts gemeinsam an der Entwicklung optischer Geräte.
Artikel Lesen
„Knowledge Cities“: Wachstumsstrategien und institutionelle Barrieren für Städte mit Wissenschaftseinrichtungen
Peter Franz
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
Nr. 5,
2007
Abstract
Im Bemühen um eine verbesserte wirtschaftliche Entwicklung stellen Städte, die über Wissenschaftseinrichtungen verfügen, vermehrt Überlegungen an, diesen Standortfaktor als Grundlage für neue Wachstumsstrategien heranzuziehen. Ein Überblick über die quantitativen Voraussetzungen, die die deutschen Städte für die Verfolgung einer derartigen „Knowledge City“-Strategie haben, zeigt, daß 29% der deutschen Städte mit mehr als 20 000 Einwohnern als Standort für Hochschulen und Forschungsinstitute dienen. Auch unter den Mittelstädten sind in quantitativer Hinsicht die Chancen für die Anwendung einer solchen Strategie gut verteilt. Die Analyse des Politikfelds nach Instrumenten und beteiligten Politikebenen ergibt, daß sich hier die Aufgabe einer komplexen Mehrebenenpolitik mit begrenzt autonomen Akteuren stellt. Gerade die Akteure auf der kommunalen Ebene, denen eine Initiativ- und Führungsrolle im Politikprozeß zukommt, verfügen über sehr geringe Entscheidungsmacht, so daß die Erfolgschancen einer „Knowledge City“-Strategie stark vom Geschick abhängen, Netzwerke zu knüpfen und Kooperationen einzuleiten. Eine besondere Hürde stellt bisher noch die geringe Autonomie der Hochschulen dar, die unter der Direktive der jeweiligen Landesregierung stehen. Erste politische Reaktionen wie z. B. in Nordrhein-Westfalen zeigen, daß die Problematik dieser Regulierungspraxis zunehmend erkannt und den Wissenschaftseinrichtungen ein Autonomiezuwachs ermöglicht wird. Würden diese ersten Anzeichen zu einem flächendeckenden Trend anwachsen, könnte dies mehr Städte motivieren, eine „Knowledge City“- Strategie einzuschlagen.
Artikel Lesen
